EU push to harmonise MEP elections

Ireland is to lose one MEP and is being "strongly encouraged" by the EU to move to a single countrywide electoral list system for European parliament elections by 2009. Ireland has 13 seats in the European parliament spread between four electoral areas. Due to EU expansion, which was scheduled to bring Bulgaria and Romania into the union by the end of this year, Ireland has agreed to forego one MEP at the EU elections in 2009.

The European parliament is also attempting to regularise the electoral systems in all member states so that MEPs are elected by a proportional-representation list system based on the EU regions. Under this system the Republic of Ireland constitutes one region. Larger countries have a number of regions – the UK has 11. A Brussels-based Irish civil servant said: "Although it is up to each member state to decide upon it's on electoral system, there is a major push by the parliament to have a harmonised election system employed by all states by 2009. This would mean Ireland introducing a list system for the entire country. There is some discussion of Ireland possibly being divided into eastern and western regions."

Ireland has one of the lowest MEP-to-voter ratios, with about one seat for every 250,000 voters.

Ireland's representation in the European parliament is currently five Fine Gael MEPs, four Fianna Fáil, one Labour, one Sinn Féin and two Independents. A change to a single countrywide list system is believed to favour national party candidates over Independents.

Scott Millar